Obama, Romney duel on campaign’s final stretch

US: President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney sprinted back onto the campaign trail Thursday, touting rival visions for America to the faithful and the undecided just five days from polling day. After a rare political truce which allowed Obama to preside over the federal response to this week's superstorm Sandy, which killed dozens and devastated parts of the Eastern seaboard, the two candidates stopped pulling their punches and re-engaged for the final round of their heavyweight presidential bout.

Obama launched an ambitious swing through four vital battleground states a day after touring New Jersey's coastline, which was left swamped by the storm. Addressing a crowd in Green Bay, Wisconsin, he praised citizens for coming together in the wake of the storm and urged voters to give him four more years in office.

“When disaster strikes, we've seen America at its best,” he said. “All the petty differences that consume us all seem to melt away. There are no Democrats or Republicans during a storm; they're just fellow Americans.” Obama's take-charge, cross-party approach to storm relief has done him no harm in his re-election bid, but with the race on a knife edge he was eager to cover as much ground as possible in a whirlwind dash to November 6.

After Wisconsin he jetted further west to swing state Nevada, and will then head to Colorado before overnighting in key battleground Ohio.

Obama hammered his White House challenger for seeking to pluck the “change” mantle from the president. “Now, in the closing weeks of this campaign, governor Romney has been using all his talents as a salesman to dress up these very same policies that failed our country so badly, the very same policies we've been cleaning up after for the past four years -- and he is offering them up as change,” Obama said.

AFP